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Saturday, 8 August 2015

Song of Solomon 2:8-13 ♥ The voice of my beloved ♥

Good afternoon girls! Just popping in with my thoughts from yesterday's reading. Here is your reading plan for next week. Can you let me know how you are getting on with this?

Verse 8. "The voice of my Beloved!" The young woman suddenly hears the voice of the one she loves calling to her from a distance as he makes his way in her direction. He is full of life and joy at the prospect of meeting with her again. It does seem from verses 11 and 12 that they may have been separated for quite a while, perhaps throughout the whole of the winter time.

In the late autumn or winter months, there are times when the shepherd can find no pasturage that is available for his flock, and then he must become responsible for feeding the animals himself. If the flock is small there may be times when it is stabled within the peasant house, and the family lives on a sort of mezzanine floor above it. At such seasons of the year the shepherd must provide the food. This is what Isaiah meant when he said: "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd" (Isaiah 40:11). In some sections of Syria, flocks are taken at this season to places in the mountain country, where the shepherd busies himself with the bushy trees, cutting down branches that have green leaves or tender twigs, that the sheep and goats can eat. Micah was probably speaking of this custom of providing food for the sheep, when he said: "Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage" (Micah 7:14).

When someone we love is far from us we miss their voice, don't we? Thankfully in this day and age of advanced technology, we are able to talk to our friends and family via Skype, What's App and all sorts of other media. But in Bible times this was not the case and the shepherdess would have missed hearing the voice of her loved one. He has had to be away working with and looking after his flock during the winter, but now those days are past. Spring has arrived, flowers are starting to bud and bloom and give off their sweet fragrances, birds are singing and everything is beginning to come alive!

These words make me think of the dark winter months of life that we often face here on earth while we await the return of our Saviour and King to the earth to take us home. Of course, we have the blessing of prayer and also the Comforter, the holy Spirit, who takes care of us until Christ returns. It is truly wonderful to be able to have communion and fellowship with God through prayer but we are still distant from Him. At the minute when we read His Word, we are blessed to hear His speaking voice through the pages of Scripture; and He hears our voice when we pray to Him. But we cannot hear His voice in all its fulness while we are separated from each other. But can you imagine the joy and wonder when Christ returns to reclaim us and we hear His lovely voice calling us home? Weren't the people who lived on earth during Christ's lifetime a blessed people? They were able to sit at the Saviour's feet and hear His message of love to them. It will be a brand new day when Christ returns and the winter will be past, as we know it now. The times of darkness, trouble and sorrow will be gone when Christ returns in all His glory to take us forever to be with Him. Then we will hear Him say the wonderful words "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away"! If you are feeling dejected today or downcast, comfort yourself with these words. The winter WILL pass and then our eternal rest will come at last. We have so much to look forward to!

2 comments:

Really enjoying your study. I think my favourite verse is chapter 2 v 6 'his left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me' . Just as you point out here even though we may be going through some hard time or even a good time we are held in our loving Heavenly Fathers arms, protected, comforted, strengthened. :)

Glorious Autumn

See God's glory in the beautiful colours surrounding us!

A place of rest...

...where the soul can find refreshment and comfort

Welcome!

When you visit this blog, I'd like you to find 'a place of rest', where your soul can be refreshed from the Scriptures. I will be Blogging through the Bible and sharing with you what I learn from the Word of God, but I would also encourage you to follow through on your own and maybe even share with me what you are learning. It is a wonderful thing to be able to grow in grace and to do this we need to soak ourselves in the Word, dig deep into its treasures, learn from it and share it with others. I trust that the Lord will bless us abundantly as we walk with Him each day!

I also have a craft blog called Stampinperfectpeace if you'd like to pop over there for a visit too.